Phishing vulnerability compounded by older age, apolipoprotein E e4 genotype, and lower cognition.

With technological advancements, financial exploitation tactics have expanded into the online realm. Older adults may be particularly susceptible to online scams due to age- and Alzheimer's disease-related changes in cognition. In this study, 182 adults ranging from 18 to 90 years underwent cognitive assessment, genotyping for apolipoprotein E e4 (APOE4), and completed the lab-based Short Phishing Email Suspicion Test (S-PEST) as well as the real-life PHishing Internet Task (PHIT). Across both paradigms, older age predicted heightened susceptibility to phishing, with this enhanced susceptibility pronounced among older APOE4 allele carriers with lower working memory. Additionally, performance in both phishing tasks was correlated in that reduced ability to discriminate between phishing and safe emails in S-PEST predicted greater phishing susceptibility in PHIT. The current study identifies older age, APOE4, and lower cognition as risk factors for phishing vulnerability and introduces S-PEST as an easy-to-administer, ecologically valid tool for assessing phishing susceptibility.

A potential early clinical phenotype of necrotizing meningoencephalitis in genetically at-risk pug dogs.

BACKGROUND: Necrotizing meningoencephalitis (NME) in the pug dogs is a fatal neuroinflammatory disease associated with rapid progression and poor response to conventional immunosuppressive therapy. Diagnosis is typically made after severe neurological abnormalities have manifested. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVE: Pug dogs at genetic risk for NME might manifest neurological abnormalities before developing pathognomonic clinical signs of NME. ANIMALS: Thirty-six pug dogs less than 4 years of age asymptomatic for NME. METHODS: Prospective observational cohort study with germline genome-wide genotyping. Neurological examinations were performed 4 weeks apart to document reproducible findings of central nervous system disease. Magnetic resonance imaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and testing for infectious diseases were performed in all pugs with reproducible abnormalities detected on neurological examination. RESULTS: The overall risk allele frequency in this cohort was 40%; 5 (14%) dogs were high risk, 19 (53%) dogs were medium risk, and 12 (33%) dogs were low genetic risk for NME. Reproducible abnormalities detected on neurological examination were identified in 8/24 (33%) genetically at-risk dogs and 0/12 (0%) low risk dogs. Clinical abnormalities included multifocal spinal pain in 8/8, reduced menace response in 5/8, and lateralizing postural reaction deficits in 5/8 pugs. There was a strong association between genotype risk and the presence of this clinical phenotype (P = .03). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Our findings suggest the presence of a novel early clinical phenotype of NME in apparently asymptomatic genetically at-risk pugs which might be used to plan early diagnostic and therapeutic clinical trials.